A place where the elders, ministers, and ministry leaders of the Southeastern Church of Christ can share how God is working in their lives as they strive to serve the church that He has placed in their care.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Have
you ever thought about what it would be like to spend some time with Jesus? -
back when Jesus walked the roads of Israel with his disciples, going
from village to village.We’re given the
“Reader’s Digest” version in the New Testament.Wouldn’t you like to know “the rest of the story” – kind of “read
between the lines.”I certainly would
like to join Jesus on his travels and spend “A
Day In The Life Of Jesus.”

We’re not told what transpired along His
journey from one place to another.The
Bible will simply say something like, “A few days later when Jesus again
entered Capernaum…”or “…He traveled from village to village.”Well, do you realize that those few days were
filled with the daily living of Jesus and His disciples – their walking,
eating, resting, sleeping, etc.Speaking
of “walking”; how do you think Jesus got around?He probably exclusively walked from place to place.This is easily said, isn’t it?I
can tell you first hand, from being in Israel in August 2011 that it’s
very hot and dry and dusty (it was over 100 degrees most days we were there).So how far did He walk?It’s about 30 miles from Nazareth
(Jesus birth place and boyhood home) to Capernaum
(where Peter lived and where Jesus spent a lot of time).While I’m talking distance; do you realize
it’s about 68 miles from Nazareth to Jerusalem. I don’t want to lose you in the geography; but
my point is that in the daily life of Jesus he often walked up to 20 miles a day
in various harsh conditions.If you walk
4 miles per hour, this would be a minimum of 5 hours walking per day.

What
did Jesus do during all these hours He spent walking?Can’t you just imagine the amount of talking
and teaching he did with His disciples.Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have been with Jesus during those times!To listen and to learn. We’re not privy to all these conversations
that would have taken place or the situations that Jesus would have handled in
His divine ways. Of course Jesus would have had “small talk” and all the usual
conversation when living and traveling with people.Remember He was totally human [yet
divine]:* Philippians 2:6-8 - “Who, being in very nature God, did not
consider equalitywith God something
to be grasped, but made Himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became
obedient to death…”

Have
you ever wondered whom Jesus used for advice – where did He get His
counsel?We’re often told in the Gospels
that Jesus would go out alone and talk [pray] to His Father God.As in Jesus’ conversations with His
disciples, we’re not privy to what Jesus prayed [only when He instructs His
disciples how to pray (the “Lord’s Prayer) and His anguished prayers after His
capture in the Garden
of Gethsemane and on the
cross].Here we have the divine Son of
God having regular prayers with His Father God.Amazing!This being the case; how
much more should we commune [pray] with our Father God!I confess my deficit here, and I imagine most
of you can say the same.

Jesus was real; the historical Jesus is a substantiated
fact - [the topic for a future article].If you sometimes have difficulty realizing, understanding, believing
that there is an all powerful, creator God; then just keep your eyes on the
real Jesus.Jesus came from God,
regularly prayed to God, honored God, and lived by God’s desires.We can be confident of this and put our total
faith and trust in our God because of Jesus.

I
also find great strength and confidence in the fact that Jesus prayed for me
[and for you]!!Yes, He did.

*
John 20:29 – “Because you have seen me,
you have believed; blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have believed.” -(this is us)

*
John 17:20 – “My prayer is not for them
alone.I pray also for those who will believe in me through their
message.” – (this again represents us)

Let
us all continually find faith, strength, and confidence through Jesus – as we
frequently spend “ADay In The Life Of Jesus”.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Two weeks ago, I was in hot and humid Honduras.This week, I’m in hot (but not as bad as most
IMPACTS) and humid Tennessee.Two weeks
ago, I was camping in a bunk house with 9 other men watching Fred run from a
scorpion.This week, I’m living large in
a 12X20 dorm room with Jill and Hudson, grateful that we are in the part of the
dorm with working AC.Two weeks ago, I
spent 8 hours a day in the hot sun laying brick to build a house for a lady and
her children who had no home of their own.This week, I’m watching more than 2,000 teens build on their faith in
God through powerful worship and challenging lessons.Two weeks ago, I ate my meals in an open-aired
dining area on top of a mountain with a group of worn out workers.This week, I eat my meals in a multi-million
dollar facility packed to the gills with young people who are completely
excited to be there with each other.

On the surface, the two weeks couldn’t be more
contrasting.Our time in Honduras was in
response to the fact that it is one of the poorest countries in the Western
Hemisphere and in turn is filled with great need that most who live in USA
cannot fathom.Think about this: The
average worker in Honduras will earn approximately $10-$15 per day with many
making less.For IMPACT, our teens pay
over $200 for the week to live in cramped dorms.What a privilege!Many children in Honduras spend the day
working hard in jobs that are dirty and dangerous just to bring money home for
their family’s survival.At IMPACT, our
teens have free time in the afternoons to play games, and nightly entertainment
that is designed to make us laugh and have a good time in a clean and safe
environment.The two worlds look very
different.

So, what’s my point?Is it to make us feel guilty for going to spend time and money at IMPACT
rather than building houses?Is it to
try to make a statement out of wealth and privilege?It’s none of those things.While I could go on and on with the contrasts
of these two events, I’d rather take a minute and talk about one big point that
these two events hold in common:God is
present.In both places, there is
darkness that God is inserting Himself into to bring light and reconciliation.And what’s even more powerful is realizing
that God has decided to let me be part of His plan!

God called His people out to provide for the needy, lonely,
hurting, and homeless in Honduras and so Mission Lazarus (ML) was started. It’s not just because Jarrod Brown is a great
person, but because God moved in him to be passionate about bringing Jesus’
presence to the middle of darkness and hurt.The lives of orphans are given hope through ML.Families are receiving homes.The sick are being healed.Hungry people are being fed.Some people who are saddled with poverty are even
employed or trained for better jobs through ML.But more importantly, lives are being changed because the people of
Honduras are seeing the presence of God and have a chance to give their lives
to Jesus.A light is shining in a dark
place because people are reflecting Christ.

But, what about IMPACT? We definitely didn’t build any houses in
Nashville.If I had shown up with a
hammer and trowel to any of the $500,000 homes around Lipscomb, I would have
had a little explaining to do when the Nashville PD arrived.So, what is the darkness here?What is the need? I think it’s this: there is a campus full of
teenagers who are growing up in a culture that wants to teach them lesson after
lesson that flies in the face of everything that Jesus stands for.Here are just a few of those teachings from
our culture:

I could go on and on.You could even make your own list that might look different than
mine.But, the bottom line is that we
are in a dark culture filled with values very different from God’s own heart.Some of those notions are even rooted in the
“American Way.” Misconceptions like having plenty is always a blessing, or long-held religious practices must be correct. The
sad part is that these values are soaking into the core of who our young people
are and forming their attitudes about themselves, faith, and the world.God wants to tear those bad teachings
apart.He wants to tear away the
blinders and let his light pour in!For
many years, I’ve seen IMPACT used as a tool for God’s presence to come in and
change teens through the worship and teaching.I’ve seen teens gain confidence as they learn that identity isn’t based
on who they are, but on whose they are.I’ve seen teens challenged to not look at what they have as something to
be used just on their own desires, but to share with others who have need.I’ve witnessed girls decide to dress more
modestly and guys make convictions to throw away certain video games and turn
off things they shouldn’t be watching. We
also learn how to have fun as Christians and laugh at things that aren’t laced
with profanity or depending on mocking God. IMPACT has been on this mission for
years.It’s not just because the people
who run it are great people.Rather, it’s
because God put a passion in their hearts to bring His light into a culture
filled with darkness.Teens’ lives are
being changed.

So, what is the point?Go to IMPACT (most Christian universities actually have adult programs
in the summer that are really good as well!) and Honduras next year so you can
see God?Well, maybe.Both are great experiences and could change
you!But, before that, I’d like for you
to think about what immediate areas of darkness God might be calling you to
bring His Light into.The cliché answer
is “everywhere.”And that’s true.But, where might God be calling you to
specifically be an ambassador for His Kingdom?Is it someone in your neighborhood who needs you to take a weekend and
do their yard work because they can’t?Is there someone at your work going through a family crisis who needs
support?What classmate in your school
is being left out or bullied?Is there a
problem like hunger, homelessness, or slavery in the world that God is calling
you to interject His presence and hope?What sins in your own life need to be swept out and replaced by the light
of God? Are your finances a dark place
because you spend money only on selfish things?Is there something about Southeastern that needs to be awakened or
changed by a fresh invitation of God’s presence in the place of religious
tradition?

God will find a way to present His light into dark places!The question is:Will we be part of the delivery system?I sure hope so.Now, GO SHINE!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

It was a Saturday morning with a rainy ugly kind of start
to the day.I was supposed to go work out but I did not even want
to get out of bed.It took every ounce of my resolve to make
myself go work out.As I began to walk on the treadmill, entering
the gym came a young lady, about 24 years of age.Her left leg had
been amputated above the knee.In a few minutes she was on the
treadmill next to mine walking faster with one leg and her prosthesis than I was
walking with two good legs.I began to run and soon she too was
running and she ran faster than I ran.This was simultaneously
embarrassing and encouraging.I quit walking and running after 35
minutes, my one legged neighbor was still going strong.

This event called to mind a long forgotten memory.My senior year in high school there was a fellow student
named Steve Gardner.We were not related.I never
shared a class with Steve and I can’t recall any conversation with him.We moved in different circles.However, I do recall Steve
coming to school one day on crutches, his leg had been amputated above the
knee.Steve had bone cancer and he soon passed from this life into
the next one at barely 18 years of age.Steve and I are side by in
the yearbook the only two Gardners at my high school.

The cover of this same yearbook features a lone runner
moving effortless through the eucalyptus trees at the Burlingame Country
Club.The photograph was taken on a still, cool California morning
and in full vibrant colors.The runner is me, enjoying the
knowledge that my senior yearbook would have my photo on the front cover.I gave no thought to Steve or anyone else.I was a
self-absorbed 17-year-old kid without perspective.

Today I am a much older “kid” still lacking perspective way
too often.Thanksgiving should characterize every
Christian.Paul tells us to “in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.”(Phil. 4:6).Am I thankful for each day that God grants me
on the good earth?Do I make the most of my opportunities?Am I grateful to God for all his gifts to me?

When we have problems we tend to make them worse than they
are.The Hebrew writer asks us to consider, to think about “Him
who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not
grow weary and lose heart.”The writer then adds “You have not yet
resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.”(Hebrews 12:3-4).I always see my problems as worse than
they are.I am usually pretty sure I am suffering more than I
really am.Do we consider Christ at times like these and think
about what he suffered?That kind of comparison puts my own
sufferings in perspective.

My paternal grandfather died at age 51 of black lung and
tuberculosis after spending twenty years as a lead-zinc miner.When I am having a “bad” day at work I try to remember my
grandfather.When I don’t want to work out, I try to remember the
one-legged girl.When I think I am suffering spiritual
persecution, I think about Christ and what he endured.The right
perspective helps me see things as they are and not as I wish them to be.How is your perspective?

Thursday, June 6, 2013

I heard an interview with Stephen King recently. Stephen King has the ability to scare people
out of their wits, whether you’re reading his novels or watching one of the
many, many film adaptations. Scaring
people is what he does. But in the
interview, he was asked what scared him. He responded by saying that the movie that had
really scared him in the last few years began this way: There’s a seated woman writing the line “the
branches creaked in the…”She stops and
asks her husband, “What are those tall things in the backyard? Birds land in the branches…” And her husband says, “Why, Iris, those are
trees.” “Trees, yes, that’s it!” And she continues to write and the movie
begins. The movie is Iris, the story of Oxford writer and
philosopher Iris Murdoch and her battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Stephen
King, master of horror, a man who makes his living (a good living) assisting
people in feeling fear, says that what scares him most is the thought of losing
his mind. That is his boogeyman.

What is your boogeyman? What is
it that you fear the most? Maybe another
way to put it is this: What is the thing that you would absolutely not want to
happen under any circumstances?

Maybe it’s cancer. Maybe it’s that something will happen to your
kids or your grandchildren. Maybe it’s financial ruin. Maybe it’s that someone will find out about
what you did that time. Maybe it’s that you’ll lose your job or your car or
your house. Maybe it’s that you’ll be a
victim of a terrorist attack. Maybe it’s
that you’ll have to live in constant pain. Maybe it’s that your spouse will leave you. Maybe it’s that you’ll be lonely.

Maybe, like Stephen
King, it’s that you might spend the last years of your life not in your right
mind and utterly dependent on others. (This
may be one of the only ways Stephen King and I are alike.)

Or, maybe you are
one of those folks for whom there’s a revolving set of “greatest fears”—this
one today, another one tomorrow…plenty to go around.

Here are a couple of thoughts to keep in mind:

That one thing, or
all of those things, you fear the most might,
in fact, happen sometime.

That one thing, or
all of those things, you fear the most, will, in fact, probably not happen.

(Some of you don’t
believe that last line, but my concern going forward is not to convince of
that…so, we move on…because…)

Here is a bigger thought to keep in mind:

Whether that thing
you fear the most—or all of them, at once—ever happens, on one level, it doesn’t matter.

Not if you are a
child of God. (I know that is easier
said than lived, being myself perhaps not a professional, but at least an
accomplished amateur worrier.) But it is
a truth to go back to as a touchstone over and over.

So, Greg, what does this have to do with learning life in Christ? Isn’t that supposed to be the point of this
blog?

John says that
“perfect love casts out fear” (see 1 John 4.18). Perhaps the flip side of that is true, as
well: perhaps fear can cast out of our hearts our awareness of God’s perfect
love. Or, maybe I’m the only one that
finds it to be true that when I’m focusing on my fear concern du jour,
my trust is God is pretty much non-existent. And you can’t live for him when you don’t
trust him.

Here’s a lesson a lot of the folks in the Bible learned: in the facing
of our deepest fears, God’s presence is found.

Think Abraham and
the call to sacrifice Isaac. Think Moses
the fugitive going back to Egypt. Think Esther going to see the king (as Dale
pointed out in his sermon a couple of Sundays ago). Think Jesus in the Garden
and then going on to the cross.

Or, consider the
prophet Habakkuk, who is not happy with the behavior of the people, wants God
to do something about it. But then he is
upset with God, confused and fearful when he finds out that God’s plan is for
the Chaldeans to destroy Jerusalem and take the people into exile. But after God gives him some information and
some time to think, Habakkuk concludes:

Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will exult in the God of my salvation

(Habakkuk
3.17-18).

(Translation: “If
the worst possible happens and life falls completely apart, I’ll still rely on
God.”)

Or, consider the
early preacher/missionary Paul, with all he endured to do that proclaiming
about Jesus (there’s a handy listing of his troubles in 2 Corinthians 11.23-29). And yet, what is his core conviction? I think he states it quite eloquently in Romans
8.35, 37-39:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us. For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Translation:
“Nothing that I might fear will ever be powerful enough to take me away from
God.”)

Some of our fears may, in fact, come true. (Most will not, thanks be to God.) But whether they happen or not, we can rest
assured that God is with us, even there, in the fear, and he will see us
through.Whatever you fear the most is
not as powerful as God. Every now and then, I need that reminder.